On 14-15 June 2022, over 600 representatives from local authorities, central government, VCSE, and health across the UK attended the Strengthening Families, Protecting Children National Online Learning Event. Dawn Taylor, Deputy Director for Innovation, Learning and Digital at DfE and Minister Quince, Minister for Children and Families, opened the event.
The event was a key opportunity to learn more about the three Strengthening Families, Protecting Children models and their effectiveness. The three models are No Wrong Door, Family Valued and Family Safeguarding, and we heard from the Innovator authorities behind each of the models (North Yorkshire, Leeds and Hertfordshire), as well as from some of the authorities who are successfully adopting the models.
Welcome and introduction
Warm welcome and introduction
Dawn Taylor, Deputy Director for Innovation, Learning and Digital at DfE and Minister Quince, Minister for Children and Families, launched the event on Tuesday 14th June 2022, with a warm welcome and introduction to all those taking part.
SFPC National learning event – Introduction
Event sessions: Tuesday 14 June 2022
On Tuesday 14 June 2022, innovators and adopters shared an introduction to the key features and principles of each of their models and insights into the impact it is having.
- Family Safeguarding – Overview: Angela Clarke from Hertfordshire and colleagues from adopter local authorities Cambridgeshire & Lancashire led an overview session of the Family Safeguarding model.
- No Wrong Door model – Overview: Janice Nicholson from North Yorkshire and colleagues from adopter local authorities Redcar & Cleveland & Middlesbrough led an overview session on the No Wrong Door model.
- Family Valued model – Overview: Steve Walker and his team from Leeds led a session sharing an overview of the Family Valued model.
- Insights into the implementation of Family Valued: The adopter authorities team at Warwickshire, Coventry, Newcastle and Darlington shared their insights of implementing the Family Valued model.
- Insights into the implementation of No Wrong Doors: We heard insights directly from Middlesbrough, Rochdale, Norfolk, Warrington & Redcar & Cleveland adopter authorities about their experiences of adopting and adapting No Wrong Door.
- Insights into the implementation of Family Safeguarding: We also heard from Walsall, Wandsworth & Lancashire adopter authorities about their journey and implementation of Family Safeguarding.
- Insights from the formal evaluations: In the final session of the day, we heard from What Works Centre on insights from the formal evaluations and what local authorities need to know before implementing a model.
Event sessions: Wednesday 15 June 2022
On Wednesday, 15 June 2022, the event focused on insights from across the SFPC programme about effective support for families. We heard from both innovator and adopter authorities sharing their experiences on several cross programme themes:
- Family Valued: Implementing Family Led Decision Making: Redefining the concepts of ‘help’, ‘solutions’ and ‘expertise’. Insight into how the Family Valued approach challenges the traditional tendency of services to ‘do for’ and ‘solve’, taking us to a more facilitative and enabling role where families drive planning for their own children.
- No Wrong Doors: Enabling the System to Work for the Child: We did a deeper dive into the delivery of the No Wrong Door model and explored the difference it makes to children, families, partners and Local Authorities.
- Being Family Safeguarding: Leading system and cultural change: Insights in how to support system and cultural change through adopting the Family Safeguarding model.
- Connecting SFPC and Supporting Families: Bekah Atherton – Assistant Director at DfE, explored how implementing one of the SFPC models could contribute to meeting the outcomes of the Supporting Families programme.
- Professional and families working together in new ways: Learning from experiences across all three models, we considered some of the benefits, challenges and success factors of working in partnership across the wider system to support families.
- Workforce and retention: Understanding the opportunities and challenges of the models on workforce recruitment and retention.
- Exploring the role of leadership: What types of leadership do we required to adopt and sustain the models successfully? Also view the report: Five attributes of effective leadership
Closing Sessions
In discussion: Josh MacAlister and Isabelle Trowler
For our closing session, we heard thoughts from Josh MacAlister, the Chair of The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care and Isabelle Trowler, Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, on the SFPC programme and its place within the context of the Care Review recommendations.
SFPC National Learning Event – closing session
Congratulations and a special thank you to everyone who generously gave their time and ideas and worked tremendously hard to make this important event a huge success. Look out for further exploration of key themes emerging from these discussions in the next issue of the Strengthening Families Learning Journal, due to be published in Autumn 2022.
If you want to share your thoughts on the event or any of the sessions, please use the hashtag #SFPCLearningEvent